


The Things That Will Remain

by dire_quail



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator: Dark Fate
Genre: F/F, Fade to Black, Intimacy, Time Travel, Worldbuilding, intimacy porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:28:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21559354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dire_quail/pseuds/dire_quail
Summary: “Grace,” Dani puts her hand on Grace’s. “Can I have this?” She asks. Grace’s features tighten briefly with confusion. Dani doesn’t know how to ask for this.It’s not a nice or kind heat, inside her. It’s desperate and feels like someone, something, has ripped away a layer between her and the world. But Grace makes her feel like it’s okay to feel it.And it feels like Grace would understand.Or, Grace gives away her feelings while they’re at Carl’s house, and Dani has questions. Grace is tired of not being able to answer.(Some minor canon-divergence. Also, jumps right in there.)
Relationships: Grace/Dani Ramos
Comments: 18
Kudos: 265





	The Things That Will Remain

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [”Mother I’m Alive”](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nY2fqL7A-48) by Hot As Sun.

“So, did you kiss me like that in the future, too? Or is this new to you?”

Grace’s caught, slightly guilty look tells Dani everything she needs to know. One, Grace has kissed her before (which makes this... interesting); and two, Grace looks adorable, looking up at her with longing that she seems to have forgotten how to hide, and embarrassment that seems to have only lasted a few heartbeats.

Like this whole situation, it’s all a little much.

But as Dani sits down on the bed next to Grace with a sigh, the response in the pit of her stomach is hard to ignore. And the knowledge slots into place, makes sense of a lot of things that stuff like “time travel” and “Rev-9” explain, but don’t make sense of. 

“You came back in time—“ 

“Because humanity needs you.” Grace says. “And I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe.” 

She’s so matter-of-fact about it. Dani knows that future-her is probably into different things by the time her and Grace are together, but thinks she still has the same sappy romantic streak she does now, because the understated dedication in Grace’s voice is doing all kinds of things for her. 

The implications are a bucket of ice water, though, after today.

“I’m not sure if I get this whole “You will save humanity” thing.” Dani says, and then looks at Grace again, so attentive, so alert.

Grace’s hand reaches out to hers, tentative, like a small, reassuring gesture like this one is a foreign thing to her, like she’s operating off a memory of a memory or an idea she saw in a movie, but doesn’t know what it means or how to do it. Dani turns her hand so that she can capture Grace’s when Grace’s fingers trace across the back of her hand, hard with calluses, but gentle on her skin. 

Grace takes a few heartbeats to take it in, looking at their joined hands. Then her head tilts back up so that she’s looking Dani in the eye. “You don’t have to do it all today.” It’s reassuring and unwontedly charming and lovely, until— “That’s why Legion picked this time.”

Dani breathes out slowly. She’s nowhere close to accepting her life as it is now, but the devotion from the woman sitting next to her is a lifeline, and all Dani wants to do is hold onto it. Hold onto her.

“But you do,” Grace continues, earnest, gaining steam, “You save us.” There’s a weight and a light in her eyes that wasn’t there on the train, a few hours ago. An intensity. But whatever it is— 

“I’m not that person yet,” Dani cuts Grace off before she can build up some future-version of herself that seems too impossible to even exist. “Fuck, and it’s not even _me_ , it’s—“ 

“It’s you.” Grace says, low and earnest, and Dani thinks there’s something that she didn’t tell them on the train, something behind her reaction to Sarah’s insistence that Dani was “Mother Mary”. 

Honestly, Dani’s pretty sick of the idea herself, and she hasn’t even had it in her head for a whole day.

Dani studies Grace, and decides this line of explanation should wait.

“So, my girlfriend came back to protect me, huh?”

Grace looks adorably blindsided by this and stammers for a moment before answering, “We’re—not really— We don’t really—“ She looks sheepish. “We don’t really make those distinctions.” Grace catches the slight lift in Dani’s eyebrow. “We’re together.” She admits. “I… liked you for a long time. We’ve known each other for years. At some point, it just... happened. And we forgot to stop.” 

Grace almost makes it sound like life continues after… this. Dani almost finds it soothing.

People still have crushes and fall in love after the world ends. That’s not a terrible thought.

Dani’s eyes wander over Grace’s body with an intent she hasn’t had time to really ponder until now, taking in the exposed parts, drawing some conclusions about the covered ones.

Grace catches her gaze wandering, and doesn’t quite smile, but her gaze takes on a certain… restrained heat. It’s doing all kinds of things for Dani. 

“I guess you are pretty nice to look at.” Dani teases lightly after a moment, trying to keep things light. Grace seems pleased at that, looking at her with a familiarity and a knowing that Dani can’t share, but wishes she did, and takes comfort in all the same. Dani nudges her shoulder playfully. “Don’t get cocky. I never said soldiers were my type.” 

It’s a lie. But she likes their bodies, not so much their faces. Grace… 

She’s got it all, as the song goes.

Grace looks at her from almost-under her eyelashes, a smile spreading on her lips. “Pretty sure that’s exactly what you said you were into.” 

Dani hums skeptically. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s what I said.” 

Grace laughs. “It isn’t.” She admits. 

“What did I say?” Dani asks. Grace can pay back her annoyances in being teased, Dani figures. She seems game. 

And like she won’t notice. 

Grace smiles and shakes her head. “Can’t say.” Dani raises an eyebrow. Grace lasts maybe another five seconds. “Not much.” Grace offers. “When we—“ Grace seems unable to say it out loud, and Dani appreciates her attempts at tact, in spite of the fact that if there is a tact spectrum, Grace is on the end furthest from it. 

Grace looks at Dani, a faint blush stained high on her cheeks. “We’d known each other a long time.” Grace repeats, by way of explanation. Her eyes shine, now, with a memory that Dani isn’t privy to—a brief flicker down her body, tenderness, and something else, a version of the intensity she’s had all along, but… 

Embarrassingly, Dani finds herself reacting to that look. The devotion that’s plain in it, the intimacy. The way Grace clearly tries to be a discreet and not intrusive about it—the desire, the knowing. 

“Don’t get familiar with me.” Dani teases, equal parts embarrassed and pleased when her voice comes out lower than she means it to. “ _I_ just met you.”

Grace laughs at that, looking down, embarrassed. Dani’s heart skips. Fuck. She’s breathtaking. 

“We don’t get a lot of time to ourselves.” Grace volunteers after a few moments. 

Dani nods. “So that hasn’t changed.” 

Grace shakes her head. “No.” They both laugh. Grace’s look melts into something more serious. “I’m not asking for anything from you, though. I’m here to protect you. Nothing is going to change that. Nothing else comes before that.” 

Dani sighs, suddenly less turned on. They’ve been back and forth about it this whole time, in one form or another, couched in allusions or stated outright. “I’m not some… _package_.” 

Grace, thankfully, doesn’t press with the _“humanity needs you to survive”_ angle. “You’re not.” She agrees. “You’re the person I trust most in what’s left of our world. You’re the person who taught me to hope. You’re—“ She breaks off, and it’s starting to dawn on Dani that Grace wasn’t exaggerating when she said they’d known each other a long time. This isn’t even “established relationship” territory. This is deep and abiding.

“Grace,” Dani puts her hand on Grace’s. “Can I have that?” She asks. Grace’s features tighten briefly with confusion. Dani doesn’t know how to ask for this. 

It’s not a nice or kind heat, inside her. It’s desperate and feels like someone, something, has ripped away a layer between her and the world. But Grace makes her feel like it’s okay to feel it. 

And it feels like Grace would understand. 

“Everything that’s happened, I—“ Dani struggles for words. “—I need something to hold onto.” 

Grace’s expression shifts, understanding writing itself into her features. And then desire. 

Grace leans in, like she’s drawn in by the same pulse Dani can feel climbing higher inside her—and then pauses, eyes already darker with want, question plain on her face. 

Dani slides one hand into Grace’s hair and tugs her the rest of the way in for confirmation. 

//

Grace laughs briefly in the silence after they’ve settled together, entwined, and offers no explanation. Dani raises an eyebrow at Grace until she catches her look. 

“I don’t think we’ve ever been completely naked.” Grace explains. “For... this.” 

Dani’s head rises up off the pillow, and she knows her look is incredulous, because that’s how she feels. “ _What?_ ” Maybe this whole “love after the apocalypse” deal is even less romantic than it seemed at first. She isn’t sure how, but this definitely counts towards that. “Like, with our clothes on? Every time?” 

Grace nods. “Underwear, at least. A lot of our hideouts didn’t have heat or electricity, especially in the beginning. And when you have to be ready all the time...” She shrugs. 

“Not even when we were, I don’t know, showering?” 

Grace shakes her head. “Communal.” She says. “I guess we could’ve gotten privacy, if we’d asked. People are pretty good about sharing space. But people... wouldn’t have taken it well, either.” There’s only the faintest tinge of bitterness in Grace’s voice, but her gaze shifts away from Dani’s. 

Dani’s reaction is instinctive. “Why, because you’re a woman? Don’t they have better things to do after the world ends?” 

Grace hesitates. “No. Because I’m an Augment. I’m half-machine.” 

Dani doesn’t see a huge difference here. “So? It’s the same thing!” 

Grace’s lips twitch wryly, and then her brow furrows. She seems to struggle, for a few moments. Dani is still buzzing enough with afterglow that she doesn’t immediately press—though, if this whole “keeping secrets about you for your own good” business continues, she’s going to shoot someone with the cannon they had her practicing with earlier. “It probably wouldn’t matter for most people.” Grace volunteers finally. “But for the leader of the human resistance...” She trails off with a shrug. 

For the second (or third, or fifth, or twentieth) time this afternoon, things suddenly start to make a lot more sense. And for the umpteenth time, Dani feels the sensation of a weight dropping through the bottom of her stomach—feels dizzy, and cold, something heavy settling on her chest even as she’s unmoored from everything familiar in her life. “Oh.” Then, “ _Me_?” 

“Legion might have sent another Terminator after your mother, since I guess that’s apparently what they do,” Grace replies with only mild irritation for Sarah, “But that wasn’t what happened this time.” Grace looks at her, and it all makes sense, so much sense. “Dani, I...” Her voice catches, and she shakes her head, at a loss for words. “I’m sorry I kept it a secret. You told me before I left that the you I’d meet... couldn’t handle it. But you’re not that Dani anymore. And I can’t... I know you hate secrets. I can’t share my body with you without telling you that.” 

Dani sits up, and immediately regrets moving away from Grace—though, some level of control of her movements feels marginally better than staying tangled up with Grace, for the moment. Grace half-rolls over onto her back, propping herself up on her elbows. Dani puts a hand to her head. “I’m... a leader of the resistance.” 

“ _The_ leader of the resistance.” Grace corrects, drawing Dani’s gaze back. She finds sharp blue eyes staring evenly back at her and so many scars—scars she took on for Dani? Her eyes fall to the tattoo on Grace’s side. _Two days ago, my commander had these coordinates tattooed on me. As if I couldn’t remember shit._ That was her. 

It hits her viscerally, just how marked Grace’s life is by her. Literally and figuratively. 

“And before you start,” Grace seems to guess where she’s headed, “You were furious I volunteered for the Augment program.” 

Dani sighs. “That shouldn’t make me feel better.” 

“Why, because you hate being reminded that sometimes people sacrifice for what they believe in?” Grace sits up, completely unselfconscious of the blankets sliding off her. She smiles crookedly. “That’s a human thing. All you did was remind us there was something worth fighting for.” 

“For what?” 

“Each other.” Grace touches her shoulder, pushing Dani’s hair over slightly. “Spite. Not letting the motherfuckers win without a fight.” That crooked grin returns. 

Dani nods. “I can buy that.” That, at least, sounds like her. She looks back at Grace. 

Grace lets herself relax back down to the bed—the first time Dani has seen her relax, she thinks. _Really_ relax. Grace looks up at Dani with an unfettered affection that Dani hopes she gets to see again when this is all over. 

“I don’t want to be some... _commander_ to you,” Dani says, “All this shit? Goes to a person’s head.” Grace watches her quietly. Dani’s stomach twists. She understands what it means, then, for the person sharing her bed. Who can bleed. Who can die. She’s not comfortable being on the receiving end of that sacrifice. “But that means I can’t protect you. Or any of them.” 

Grace’s hand drifts up. Callused fingers trace over the back of her shoulder. Dani shivers slightly. One of the adjustments Grace had to make was the kind of touch Dani likes. Apparently living in a post-apocalyptic hell world tends to make you harder. Grace seems alternately surprised and enthralled by how much certain less dramatic touches affect Dani. There’s a reason for that, Dani is starting to realize. 

“No.” Grace says simply. Then, a small smirk. Those clever fingers trace down Dani’s spine and rest in the curve of her lower back. “It drives you up the wall.” 

Dani caves in to the invitation to lay down against Grace’s shoulder. “I think _you_ drive me up the wall.” She retorts. 

“That, too.” Grace doesn’t even bother denying it. After a moment— “Honestly, this is the best we’ve ever gotten, in terms of... places to be together.” Grace says, watching her fingers play over Dani’s skin like she’s cataloguing scars that haven’t appeared yet. 

Something fierce rises in Dani’s chest. No skin-to-skin, no privacy—no openness, either. They don’t have much privacy here, and Dani doesn’t have anything on Grace’s knowledge of her body, but Dani can at least give her _this_. 

For a few hours. Minutes. 

She tries not to think about what’s waiting on the other side.


End file.
